


I'd still choose you (over and over again)

by hereforthehurts (orphan_account)



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Caretaking, F/M, Family Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Katara and Zuko (Avatar) are Parents, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sickfic, Toph Beifong & Zuko Friendship, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28257675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/hereforthehurts
Summary: Toph wakes up screaming with a nightmare and a fever in the middle of the night. Katara and Zuko rushes in to help. Caretaking and fluff ensues.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Katara, Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 2
Kudos: 128





	I'd still choose you (over and over again)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi welcome to another one of my "Motherly Katara" and "Big brother Zuko" presentation 😁

Katara was used to waking up to almost anything at all. Whether it be an attack, someone dissapearing, an explosion, or screaming (she _is_ living together with five kids who has at least some kind of PTS or trauma carried around inside them, after all)—Katara has been through it all.

So when she woke up to the sound of screaming in the distance surrounded by the dark—a scene she had grown to be very familiar with, after traveling around in the midst of a war—she wasn't all that shocked nor scared at first.

She grabbed some water from the small pool in the corner of her room (now she knows why Zuko made her have room in particular) and hurried out of her door, running barefoot on the cold tiles of the corridors.

There were no guards outside of their rooms, Sokka insisted for it—he was tired of the special treatments being given to them ever since the war ended. Katara would never have thought that those words would come out of her brother's mouth, but she agreed to him, and so did Aang. Zuko didn't. He didn't want to risk his friends being possibly hurt or assassinated by some of Ozai's loyal subjects who's still roaming around the kingdom and the palace, waiting to strike back.

So, they made a deal; there were guards placed outside the set of rooms they lived in, but they don't come in unless it was necessary. And no matter how much Katara hated admitting it, Zuko might be right, just for tonight. The screams echoed through the corridors, and as she ran towards where she assumed they came from, she began to get scared. The place was too big, and the corridors were too long, it'll be too late once she found out whose screams it was and where they are—and maybe tonight, she might find one of her friends dead in their own pool of blood...

"Katara!" Sokka burst out of his room, looking frantic and dazed with Suki on his side, and there are too much things going on that she didn't have the time to question what they were doing in Sokka's room together, so late at night. "What—what's going on...?"

"I don't know!" Katara yells frantically, looking around to locate the screams. The doors all looked the same in the dark, and there's _too many doors_ it's driving her insane. "Someone's screaming—don't know where it's—"

"Okay, okay, I—Suki, get the guards, I'll help Katara find out, okay?"

Suki nods without questions, and they both ran to the opposite directions, barefoot and half-awake. Before Katara knew it, she was slamming the door open into Toph's bedroom, where the screams are strident and clear. She checks for any signs if a break-in, but there was none—the windows were intact, and the door was still locked before she burst in. Toph was on the floor, in the corner of the room, pushing herself against the wall in an attempt to make herself smaller. "Toph? What's—Toph!"

"Katara?" She calls, panting, her voice tiny and scared. _"_ _Katara!_ _"_

"Toph? Hey, hey—what happened?" She rushes to her, sliding on her knees to level the small girl, the water she brought splashing on the wooden floor as she dropped them when she tries to hold Toph. "Hey, shhhh, tell me what's wrong."

"I can't—" she stutters, breaths short and ragged, "I can't—can't feel the ground, I can't _see_ , Katara—"

"What—what do you mean you can't feel the ground?" Had she lost her bending? Katara freezes up in worry and fear. "Toph? What do you mean you—"

"KATARA!" Toph began screaming again, arms flailing around in attempt to locate her. "Katara, where are you, I'm _scared—"_

"Hey! Hey, shh, okay, it's okay, I—I'm here, Toph, I'm here," she grabs the small girl and pulls her into her arms, shushing softly. The first thing registered from her was how hot her skin felt, clammy and drenched in sweat. "It's alright, Toph, I've got you—can you feel me?"

Toph nods stiffly. "Don't go," she pleads. "Please, don't go, it's all blank and I can't—I can't—"

"Okay, okay. Okay. Let's calm down, alright? Deep breaths, you're alright," Katara shushes, trying to steady her own breaths to get her into doing the same. "Breathe, Toph. You're alright, you're safe. I'm right here. I'm here."

"It's blank," Toph kept rambling, "it's—i can't feel anything, you weren't there, nobody was there, and Zuko— _Zuko!"_ She screams again, and much to her surprise, began fighting to get out of Katara's arms. Katara held her small body still, trying to get her to calm down

"Toph, _Toph_ —calm down. It's alright, it's alright..." Katara cups the small girl's cheek, suprised by how hot it feels. She looks closer to see the red flushes on her cheeks, contrast to her paled, sickly skin.

_Oh_.

"Zuko," Toph sobs, her body dropping back to Katara's arms, the whole thing seemingly have drained all her energy out. "Zuko, you have to check on Zuko, you have to—"

"—hey, alright, _alright_ ," Katara shushes. "I'll have Sokka check on him, alright? Breathe, Toph. It's okay. Everything's okay."

"It's not," she shook her head. "it's not, it's not—"

"Okay," Katara nods, caressing Toph's face with her hand gently. "Okay, alright. Tell me what's wrong, then. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong, sweetheart."

"Hurts," Toph leans into her chest, grasping on the hem of Katara's sleep dress, "it _hurts_."

"Where?" Alarms went off in Katara's head, bringing her closer to her. "Where does it hurt, Toph? Let me help. Which part?"

"My head, and my—here..." She sobs again, biting her lip to contain them, and Katara's chest hurt. She wants to tell her that she could cry, it's okay to cry, but Toph pointed to her stomach below the chest with her shaky hands, and she decided to focus on that first.

"Your belly? Here?" Katara replaces Toph's hand with hers, and she nods stiffly. "Oh, sweetheart, alright. Okay."

"I threw up," Toph confesses, burying her face in her palms, tears running down her face, "I'm sorry, Katara, don't be mad—"

"No, no, _hey_ , of course not," she runs her hand up and down her arm soothingly. "Where did you throw up? On the bed?"

Toph shook her head. "I don't—don't know."

"Okay. That's okay. I've got you, sweetheart. It's alright." Katara held her for a while and just sat there, waiting for the others to come so they could get help. She bent the water she had dropped on the floor earlier to her side, pressing a small amount of them to Toph's burning forehead. The small girl gave out a low whine, but did nothing to stop her.

Eventually, Sokka came into the room with Aang, Suki and a couple of guards on their tail, question mark drawn all over their faces. Katara presses her index on her mouth, gesturing them to stay quiet, and Suki ushers the guards to leave.

"What happe—oh, careful, that's vomit," Sokka says, holding his arms out so that nobody steps on it. "Aang, could you—?"

"Yeah, of course," Aang nods sleepily, bending the puddle of vomit outside while Sokka avoids it in disgust. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's alright. You can go back to bed, Aang," Katara assures, knowing that the younger boy is still on bedrest after dealing with yet another problem in the fire nation.

"Alright, good night, guys." The boy yawns, walking out of the door before closing it shut.

"I had to wake him up. He's a really deep sleeper, these days," Sokka says after Aang left, folding the thrown bed sheets on the floor back on the bed.

"As he should, anyway. He needs it." Suki added. She approaches the two girls on the floor as Katara sat there still, afraid to disturb Toph. "Is everything okay?" She whispers. "Nightmares?"

Katara nods. "Sick," she whispers back. "Fever. Threw up."

"Oh." Suki winces. "Should I get the healers?"

"I don't think... not tonight. A washcloth and some warm water would be great, though," Katara says. Suki nods and gets up, walking out of the room to retrieve them.

"Do you want to move her to bed?" Sokka asks, his voice low. He held his arms out to support Toph when she nodded. "Come, I'll help you. Slow and careful."

Toph tensed when they moved, fingers tightening its grip around her arms as if she was afraid that she'd leave. Katara held her tighter. "It's alright, Toph." She mutters to her. "I'm here. I'm not leaving."

"What's wrong with her?" Sokka mouths, wearing a worried frown Katara knew too well already. She's seen it on his face every time something slightly bad happens to her. "Will she be alright?"

Katara nods. "It's just the fever and the headache, messing her bending. She can't sense things as well as she does when she's not sick. That's why she's so scared. She couldn't feel us."

Sokka winces. "I'd be scared too, if I were her. Toph, you're a one brave little guy..."

Toph jolts awake when she places her back on the bed, whimpering and holding on to Katara for dear life. Katara shushes her, running her fingers along her sweat-plastered hair gently. "It's alright, Toph, 's alright, you're safe..."

"Zuko," Toph whispers. "Zuko, you have to get him, please get him, _please_ —"

"Okay, okay. Calm down, now. Sokka's getting him right now, alright?" Katara nods at her brother, who nodded back at her and gave a small ruffle on Toph's hair before leaving the room to get Zuko.

Katara kept rocking the small girl in her arms slowly until her wrists aches. She guides Toph's hand to her bare chest so that she could feel her heartbeat, and smiles when she visibly relaxes.

Toph is still so small, _so_ _tiny_ , it hurts her every time she realizes that this girl—who've invented a whole new type of bending, who would fight anyone at all without fear—is still a disabled twelve years old girl who's spent most of her life being neglected by her own parents.

Who hides when she has to cry.

Who avoided talking about her feelings.

Who winces when anyone shows the slightest affection to her.

Katara holds her just a little bit closer.

"Katara?"

She looks up to the door to see Zuko coming in, holding a washcloth and a small basin filled with water in his hands. "What happened...?"

"Nightmare," Katara mouthed, gesturing him to come in and close the door behind him. "She's sick. Where's Sokka and Suki?"

"I told them to go back to sleep," Zuko shrugs. "I just didn't know they share the same room..."

Katara chuckles at that. "Oh, let them be. It's not like we're any better than they are."

Zuko clears his throat and glares at her, gesturing to the sleeping Toph in her arms. "Is she—will she be alright?"

"We can get the healers tomorrow, if her fever gets worse." Katara answers. Then, with a lower voice, "She wouldn't stop asking for you."

"Why?" He asks, approaching the bed. "What's wrong?"

"The nightmares. It must be."

"Oh."

Katara could see the regret and guilt in his face, a face she had grown to know too well. She held her hand out to him instead. "Hey. Come hold her."

"Right. I'll..." He stutters, walking around the bed before finally climbing in. He scoots over to them, receiving Toph's curled body from Katara's arms, wincing when Toph gasps and clings on Katara's arms, not wanting her to let go.

"Don't—don't leave, don't—"

"I'm not, sweetheart," Katara murmurs into her ear. "I'm not. Zuko's right there, Toph, can you feel him?" she guides her hand to Zuko's scarred chest, and he lets her. "There he is. You'll be alright."

"Zuko," Toph breathes. "You're—you're alright."

"Of course I am," Zuko tells her softly. "I always am."

"No, not in my dreams, you were—you were screaming and I couldn't feel the ground, couldn't feel where you are, and I was floating around and it's all blank and you're still screaming and you—"

"Hey, _hey_ , alright," Zuko presses her head into his chest, rocking her slowly, just like how Katara did minutes ago. " _Shhhh_ , alright, Toph. 'S alright. It's just a bad dream. A really, _really_ bad one. That's all it is. It's not real."

"It felt—felt real," Toph says, small fingers grasping into his sleep shirt. "I couldn't—I didn't know what was real and what isn't and it was so scary—"

"I know, sweetheart," Katara shushes, wiping away her sweaty bangs to place the warm washcloth on her forehead. "I know. I know. I'm so sorry we weren't there sooner. But we're here now, aren't we?" She presses a kiss on the side of her forehead softly. "It's going to be alright."

Toph nods, still shaking in Zuko's arms, curling in closer. "It's... 's cold."

"I can help with that," Zuko says, pulling Katara to the pile. She places the sheets over their shoulders while Zuko warms them up with his palms, careful not to let it get too hot. "Get some rest, Toph. We're right here for you."

Katara reaches over her to kiss his mouth. "I love you," She whispers.

Zuko smiles back, hands intertwined with hers over Toph's shoulders, knowing that he's not going to wake up all alone in the morning.

After all, the thing about family is that you could choose who gets to be yours.

And Zuko chose them. Always.

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr blog!!](https://hereforthehurts.tumblr.com/)


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